Chapter 16
Previous Chapter The blonde haired boy was running. Sprinting. Fleeing, barely able to catch his breath. He was a well-built football player in his high school, but those skills didn't matter now except to help him dash away from what was behind him. He was sure that he had never encountered such a thing before in his life. But merely seeing its presence had sparked an irrational fear in him. From the moment that it appeared in front of him, despite all of his aggressive physical and mental sports training to stand tall in the face of adversity, every part of his mind and body screamed at him to flee. And despite having no clue what was it was, the adolescent felt a sense of horrifying familiarity in its form and figure. The outside of the city was quiet and abandoned. Despite the bustle of Terrace Grove, the peaceful wooded region next to it was generally, and strangely, empty during the night. There had been reports of disappearances in the area, yet authorities had no leads. The boy was looking for his sister, who had gone missing a few days ago after visiting the woods. Ever since they were children, he never had to worry about her safety. Rather, it was usually her taking care of him. Her sudden disappearance was highly uncharacteristic of her, and he had been worried sick. And yet, tonight was not the first night he looked for her in these woods. He was sure that he had searched every day, from the moment she failed to return home. Due to their special circumstances, he could not risk involving the police. So he took matters into his own hands. And yet, he could not explain the lapses in his memory after every excursion into the woods. Every day since his sister's absence, he ventured into the woods to search for her. He knew that he spent a large amount of effort searching for her. He must have. That was the kind of person he was. And yet, he strangely could not recall the events of each day's search. He went into the woods, and the next thing he knew he was waking up in the morning, in his room, unable to remember the previous day. This same cycle repeated itself over several times. Frustrated, he had decided to search the woods at nighttime, in an effort to avoid whatever was triggering his memory problems. He could not rationalize it. Why was he running? What was he fleeing from? His body, and to a large extent, his mind, were working on their own. There was little room for him to process logical thought. His most primitive instincts told him that his entire existence was in danger. Trees whizzed past him as he jumped over roots, scraped past branches, and kicked through the debris in his way. Water. He had to get to a body of water. He knew that there was a large pond somewhere in the woods, and with his special ability he would be able to protect himself against whatever it was he was running from. "There's no escape." The boy felt his heart leap out of his chest. The man's voice was coming from ahead of him. His body instantly turned around and began running the other way. He forced his mind to clear. He had to face this person. Whoever he was, he must have information about his sister. And if he had managed to get in front of him already, there was little point to running. The boy stopped running. He was in an open clearing, illuminated by the night sky. Before him was a wide pool of water, reflecting the moonlight. He would be able to defend himself here. "Come out! Fight me!" the boy screamed. His voice had a ring of desperation. The nerves on the back of the boy's spine tingled. He spun around. There was a figure, cloaked in black, standing in front of him. The boy jumped back in alarm. The water in the pond rippled. Out of the corner of his eye, he checked the sky's reflection in the water, and saw a bright, silver sphere. The moon was full. He was at his maximum potential. A swirling torrent of water erupted out of the pond and surged towards the cloaked man. The boy knew that the force behind the attack was enough to lift up an elephant. And yet, the attack seemed to have missed. The man somehow disappeared and avoided getting hit. The torrent of water spiraled into the distance, crashing into a large tree. Thud! The tree fell to the ground. It was strange. The boy's ability was to control water, and he had honed it all his life. The power behind a water attack depended on how accurately and forcefully he could spin the water. The greatest amount of force he had managed to exert was enough to lift a large animal. But he had never been able to topple a tree before. The boy spun around, arms at the ready, eyes wide in alarm. The mysterious assailant was nowhere to be seen. "Excellent." The voice was coming from behind; the man had somehow teleported again. The boy turned immediately, heart pounding, body still screaming to run. His mind was clearer after performing his strongest water attack yet, and he was able to control his previously overwhelming instinct to flee. Jets of water gushed out from the pond and swirled around him, keeping his element close at hand. The boy stood his ground, streams of water spinning and circling around him. The main pool was behind the man. As the quarterback for his football team, he had an eye for seeing opportune plays. And this was the best footing he could hope for in this situation. He would be able to attack the cloaked figure from all sides with this positioning. In football, one could not afford for the opponent to catch onto a play in the making before it was executed. Sometimes, feints had to be made. The boy knew this well. One of the swirling streams of water spinning around him curled into a sphere of rotating liquid in his hand. Throwing a football required precision in applying enough spin for the crucial spiral, and manipulating water at this level was a close parallel. Another stream jumped into his other hand. He hurled the first spinning ball of water at his opponent. The man disappeared instantly from view. The attack hit the ground where he had been standing, covering the area in ice. The moment his opponent vanished, the boy spun around on the spot and hurled the second sphere. There was a splash, which immediately turned into a sharp ringing as the water instantly solidified into ice. It was a direct hit. The man was there, just as the boy predicted. His arm was outstretched and bent; his forearm, in a horizontal blocking stance, was frozen solid, with jagged icicles protruding from the point of impact. "Who are you?! Where's my sister?!" the boy yelled hoarsely, unable to keep the quivering out of his voice. The man, still shrouded in his hooded cloak, seemed to briefly glance at his frozen arm. He pointed to the ground next to him. The boy, keeping his focus on his opponent's actions, looked at the direction the man was pointing out of the corner of his eyes. It appeared to be a large bundle. The cloaked figure effortlessly used his unfrozen arm to reach down, pick up the bundle, and hold in in front of him. It was a person. A girl. Wrapped in many layers of black cloth. And the face- "What did you do to her?!!" the boy's voice no longer held any trace of fear or uncertainty. Pure wrath emanated from his scream. The man tossed the bundled girl aside, throwing her into the grass away from him. The girl seemed to be unconscious. The boy had to save his sister. More streams of water came to his aid, spinning around his clenched fists. He lunged at the hooded man, his right fist pulled back and surrounded in a sphere of liquid. He didn't know why or how. He knew he had a strong intuition, especially when it came to sports, but it's never been as sharp as it was in this moment. His mind instantly calculated that his opponent, with one arm covered in ice, would have only three options. Block with his free arm, leaving him defenseless against a followup attack; attempt a roundhouse kick; or teleport again. The football player recognized the position the hooded man was in, and rushed at an angle that would not allow his opponent to get the necessary footing for an offensive kick. The football player leapt in front of his opponent and swung with his right fist. The man stepped back to dodge and protect his left side, and the boy immediately followed up with a left hook. This time the water swirling around his fist solidified into ice right away, punching with force towards the man's exposed right side. The hooded figure stepped back again to dodge. The boy used the momentum from his left hook to spin and bring the back of his right fist towards the man's head. A jagged icicle instantly formed in his right hand as he spun, and he held it like a dagger as drove all of his momentum and force into stabbing the man's face. There was no contact. The man had disappeared again, and the boy spun again on the spot to relieve the momentum from his combination of attacks and catch his footing. But the boy had been anticipating this. This was the play that he had been setting up for all along. The man was once again between him and the pool, only a large wave of water had already risen by the time the man teleported to dodge the boy's attack. The boy slammed both hands down, putting all of his energy into making the tidal wave of water he was controlling crash down on the man. He had never solidified so much water into ice. But something inside him told him that he could do it this time. He didn't know how he knew, as he had no recollection of ever attempting such a feat, but his instinct told him to solidify only the outer streams of the wave, creating an ice prison that was filled with water. The cloaked man would have to teleport to avoid this. The moment the tidal wave crashed and solidified, the boy swung behind him with an icicle dagger with all of his might. Nothing. There was nobody there. The boy had anticipated this as well. All this time, his opponent had been teleporting behind him for some unknown reason. Now, the boy felt that he understood the limitations of that power. If he wasn't behind him, then- In an instant, the boy recovered his footing, switched the icicle to the other hand, and swung with his other fist in the direction he had been facing earlier. His stabbing swing was suddenly brought to a stop. Not because he had managed to pierce his target. But because he had swung into an open hand that had been ready for the attack. The cloaked man grabbed the boy's arm and immediately twisted it behind him. A cry of pain. The boy tried to stab with his other hand, but that was blocked by the cloaked man's frozen arm. That same arm became a cold, metal-like bar that choked against the boy's neck as he was placed into a headlock. Towards their rear stood the prison of ice that was previously created, and behind that, another twisting torrent of water surged towards the two wrestling combatants. In an instant, the man snapped one of the boy's wrists, breaking it, and flung him several yards away. The spiraling gush of water crashed down on the spot where the cloaked figure had the boy choked. But the man wasn't there anymore. The boy tried to get up, crying out in pain as he tried to balance on his snapped wrist. The man had thrown him and teleported after his flying body to dodge his last water attack. He looked behind him. A black, hooded figure loomed over his field of vision. Underneath the hood, two glinting green eyes gleamed. The boy felt that he had seen this before. Why did this scene feel so familiar? There was no more water around him. He could only rely on physical force to defend him, and after fighting with the man he knew that he was outmatched vastly. The adrenaline was leaving him. It had been coursing through his veins for so long, and yet now, when he was in the most vulnerable, dangerous position, his mind reverted back to screaming at his body to run. But his body could no longer move. The cloaked man grabbed him by his collar and lifted him up. A raspy voice, "That was impressive. You've improved greatly." The boy looked into the man's eyes. The sight terrified him to the core. Two red spheres glowed from the interior of the black hood. The man's eyes had changed to a deep, crimson, blood red. "But I can see it. You've reached your limit. This hunt is over." Events of the night whirled in his mind. So many questions remained unanswered. And yet, the boy felt a small sense of understanding in what had transpired. This scene was not new to him. He had been in this same situation many times already. Against the same opponent. And each time, he woke up the next morning in his room without a recollection of what had happened. Only this time, something in the boy's understanding of the situation told him that he would not be waking up again. He had failed to solve the mystery in time. There would be no tomorrow for him. Staring into the pair of menacing red pupils before him, the boy felt his heart sink as he realized that this was the end. Next Chapter